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Speaker 1: We'd named this dear Mowab, mother of all bucks. I

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Speaker 1: don't nickname every dear, I say, but for some reason

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Speaker 1: or another, that one he deserved a nickname. I test Ryan,

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Speaker 1: and I just said, he's in the field. If you

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Speaker 1: can get here, I'm just gonna sit here and wait.

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Speaker 1: I have a group thread with some friends of mine.

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Speaker 1: I just sent them a message and I said, boys,

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Speaker 1: I'm watching Mowab and I'm waiting for Ryan to get here,

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Speaker 1: to shoot him if the Lord wills it.

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Speaker 2: My brothers and sisters, we have found ourselves in the

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Speaker 2: beginning days of one of the great festivals of the

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Speaker 2: natural world. For roughly sixty days, the lives of men

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Speaker 2: will overlap a great pageant, ruddy, grunny, acorn, corn and

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Speaker 2: clover eating pageant. What I'm talking about is whitetailed deer

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Speaker 2: hunting of those connected to the land. Whitetail hunting in

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Speaker 2: the fall is one of the greatest celebrations in North America.

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Speaker 2: On this episode, we're back to the basics, telling deer stories.

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Speaker 2: Every storyteller on this episode bleeds a core bear grease frequency.

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Speaker 2: With some it's their passion, woodsmanship, ingenuity, or just deep

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Speaker 2: knowledge of deer honting in others, it's their nod to tradition,

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Speaker 2: love of family and friends. We're gonna hear seven stories

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Speaker 2: and most of them are gonna surprise you. From rolling apples,

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Speaker 2: good mountain horses, Andy Brown's Dads nineteen fifty six, Chevy

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Speaker 2: Mountain Lions, Charlie and Louisdale Edwards, deer dogs, and peeing

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Speaker 2: out of tree stands. This episode has stories that I

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Speaker 2: promise you you are not gonna hear anywhere else.

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Speaker 3: And it's Whitetail Week at meat Eater in First Light,

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Speaker 3: So check out all of.

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Speaker 2: The team's social media feeds for tips, tactics, and deals

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Speaker 2: this week. And if you're looking for more white tell content,

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Speaker 2: be sure to check out meat Eater's YouTube for our

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Speaker 2: series called One Week in November and a series called.

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Speaker 3: The Buck Truck.

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Speaker 2: But regardless, you're here now and you're about to hear

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Speaker 2: some incredible stories, and I really doubt that you're gonna

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Speaker 2: want to miss this one.

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Speaker 4: In the meanwhile, I'm about to go to the bathroom

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Speaker 4: in my pants. I've got to go so bad, so

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Speaker 4: I'm like, man.

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Speaker 3: I can't hold it anymore.

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Speaker 4: I've got to go to the bathroom, and I was like, Hey,

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Speaker 4: this might work.

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Speaker 2: My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

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Speaker 2: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the

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Speaker 2: story of Americans who live their lives close to the

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Speaker 2: land presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built hunting

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Speaker 2: and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as

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Speaker 2: the places we explore. When you look at the last

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Speaker 2: several hundred years of history of North American wildlife, it's

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Speaker 2: clear that species ebb and flow in their populations. A

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Speaker 2: man's entire life might overlap with a period of low

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Speaker 2: animal numbers. For instance, if you're born in nineteen fifteen,

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Speaker 2: much of your adult life the bob white quail would

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Speaker 2: have been plentiful, maybe even seeming unlimited. But someone born

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty would hardly know that a bob white

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Speaker 2: quail existed. The first twenty five years of my life,

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Speaker 2: turkey numbers boomed, but then dwindled to the point I

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Speaker 2: can hardly find turkeys in the haunts of my youth.

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Speaker 3: It's really heartbreaking.

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Speaker 2: And think of the stories of the bison hunters of

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Speaker 2: the Great Plains, which those animals went from thirty plus

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Speaker 2: million to less than a thousand continental wide. However, the

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Speaker 2: white tailed deer is another story. It's estimated we have

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Speaker 2: twenty five million white tails, and some believe that's even

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Speaker 2: more than pre European settlement numbers.

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Speaker 3: We're living in.

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Speaker 2: The heyday of white tail deer hunting. Let me say

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Speaker 2: that again. We're living in the heyday of white tail

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Speaker 2: deer hunting. Seasons are long, bag limits are liberal, and

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Speaker 2: bucks just seem to be.

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Speaker 3: Getting bigger everywhere.

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Speaker 2: I was talking to a fellow the other day who

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Speaker 2: said the liberal season structures make it hard to even

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Speaker 2: break the law deer hunting anymore. He said, we can

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Speaker 2: do things today we could have never done in the

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Speaker 2: decades past, hunting September, kill six deer year and shoot doze.

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Speaker 2: And the information about deer behavior that the average hunter

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Speaker 2: has access to today is unprecedented. There's actually a really

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Speaker 2: cool documentary that just came out called wild Tail America's

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Speaker 2: Wildest Conservation Story, produced by the National Deer Association.

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Speaker 3: Look it up.

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Speaker 2: Pretty sure it's going to be on Amazon soon. But

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Speaker 2: let's get to these stories, and our first storyteller is

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Speaker 2: from the highlands of western Arkansas. In his community, he

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Speaker 2: is known as one of the best public land mountain

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Speaker 2: deer hunters around. Dale Craig is a cattle rancher, former ferrier.

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Speaker 3: And he's a cowboy.

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Speaker 2: I went to school with his son, Clint Craig, who

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Speaker 2: made a big run in the PBR as a professional

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Speaker 2: bull rider. These guys are the real deal, and he

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Speaker 2: and his hunting partner Travis Ross, love using horses for

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Speaker 2: deer hunting. It's my pleasure and honor to introduce you

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Speaker 2: to Dale Craig.

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Speaker 5: Well, Clay. This this is a one of my stories

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Speaker 5: of hunting in a public land in This is Dale

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Speaker 5: Craig and I grew up. My dad wouldn't he wasn't

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Speaker 5: a hunter, but my mom come from a family that

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Speaker 5: hunted all the time, and I spent a lot of

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Speaker 5: time with my mom's brother, which my uncle, my first cousin.

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Speaker 5: That's where I learned to hunt. Slipping through the woods.

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Speaker 5: We didn't set We just snuck around. You know, if

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Speaker 5: you jump up a no buck, nine times out of ten,

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Speaker 5: he'll run out there fifty seventy five, sometimes a hundred yards.

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Speaker 5: He's gonna spind around, look back at you and see

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Speaker 5: see what's scared him, and then you can you can

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Speaker 5: shoot him, you know, if it's the bulk you're wanting

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Speaker 5: to kill. And that's how I grew up hunting, and

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Speaker 5: that takes me. Probably one of the neatest hunts that

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Speaker 5: I did over in on the public land was in

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Speaker 5: a November in nineteen ninety eight. There was a good

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Speaker 5: buddy of mine. He'd been after this buck and shot

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Speaker 5: at him and missed him. So it was probably I

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Speaker 5: didn't go back in there for four or five days. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: we camped on the on the main road and we'd

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Speaker 5: ride our horses into this public area. And you know,

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Speaker 5: back in them days, we were get up four o'clock

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Speaker 5: in the morning, Travis saddle horses. I'd cook breakfast. We

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Speaker 5: were gung hole.

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Speaker 6: Now.

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Speaker 5: I went in there that day and I'd hunted hard

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Speaker 5: all day, hadn't even seen a single deer that day.

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Speaker 5: It got on up, It's two o'clock in the afternoon.

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Speaker 5: You know, how to get little sun, get the beating

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Speaker 5: down here, you get hot. I was hot and sweating.

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Speaker 5: I went around this leg, started off the mountain there,

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Speaker 5: headed back towards my horse, and I got in a

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Speaker 5: bunch of rocks, big old rock out cropping film. I

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Speaker 5: got the smelling, you know how where a buck's been bedding.

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Speaker 5: He just bed today after day after day. And they

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Speaker 5: just there was beds everywhere in these rocks. There was

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Speaker 5: buck crap everywhere, and they'll secrete that that all when

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Speaker 5: they're rubbing their old glands, comes out of their gland.

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Speaker 5: There was just all on the leaves all around. And

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Speaker 5: I walked through there, and finally I foun where that

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Speaker 5: buck had been coming in to this beding area, and

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Speaker 5: he just had a trail war going out. It was

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Speaker 5: headed west. I walked followed that trail out there, and

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Speaker 5: it just dropped off in a big canyon. At the

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Speaker 5: bottom of that canyon, it tied onto the main part

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Speaker 5: of the mountain. So I just sat down there, and

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Speaker 5: that mountain was steep. I had my feet up against

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Speaker 5: a tree, got my grunt call out. I blew my

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Speaker 5: grunt three or four times, stuck it back in my pocket,

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Speaker 5: and had this big old apple. I was hungry. I

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Speaker 5: pulled that apple out and I took her by that apple.

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Speaker 5: I didn't even start chewing on that apple yet, and

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Speaker 5: I heard a brush start crashing on the main part

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Speaker 5: of the mountain. It sounded like I heard a deer

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Speaker 5: coming down through there, and I just kind of froze

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Speaker 5: there for a little bit. And this deer I just

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Speaker 5: see glimpses of it. I mean, it was making a

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Speaker 5: bee line offside that mountain. It was across a big,

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Speaker 5: big canyon, big valley across there. You just see glimpses

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Speaker 5: of it every once in a while. And I could

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Speaker 5: see horns, and I knew it was a good buck.

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Speaker 1: When it's and.

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Speaker 5: It ran to the bottom there and I could just

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Speaker 5: I couldn't make it out completely if I could see

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Speaker 5: some legs and horns, and uh, you don't have them

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Speaker 5: beech saplings that get real thick on a it is

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Speaker 5: a watered hole. I come off here and there there

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Speaker 5: was a bunch of those and had yellow leaves on them.

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Speaker 5: That deer was behind a bunch of that stuff, and

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Speaker 5: I thought, well, he'll take a step here in a

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Speaker 5: minute and get out there an oat ma and get

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Speaker 5: a shot at him. Well, I had that apple on

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Speaker 5: my left hand, so I just reached over and I

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Speaker 5: laid that apple down in the leaves, and I turned

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Speaker 5: that apple loose, pulling my hand back and that apple

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Speaker 5: took off down the mountain, rolling and it made the

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Speaker 5: god off the sound you ever heard. I thought, I

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Speaker 5: just started cringing. I thought, boy, I have fouled this

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Speaker 5: hunt up. And about that time, that buck he just

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Speaker 5: took off running that towards that out and that apple

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Speaker 5: it would go five six foot in the air and

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Speaker 5: then hit the ground. It just cuts on, cuts on

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Speaker 5: off down the side. And that buck thought it was

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Speaker 5: another deer. And he come running up through there, and

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Speaker 5: I'm I'm talking. He's his old Harris turned wrong side out.

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Speaker 5: He's all bristled up, had his old tongue right out,

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Speaker 5: and it is a block by coming up through there.

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Speaker 7: He was ready for a fight.

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Speaker 5: And he ran up probably fifty to seventy feet and

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Speaker 5: just threw the brakes on.

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Speaker 4: Well.

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Speaker 5: Whenever he stopped, there was an old black jack tree there.

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Speaker 5: It had his head and his front part of his

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Speaker 5: front shoulder covered up, but I could see horns, I

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Speaker 5: could see his nose, but from about the third rib

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Speaker 5: back I could see all that. And I finally I

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Speaker 5: picked out a little hole of about three or four

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Speaker 5: inches wide through that black jack brush. I put that

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Speaker 5: cross hair on that and I squeezed it off, and

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Speaker 5: that deer hit the ground. I mean he was dead.

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Speaker 5: Ountain was so steep he went off of it backwards,

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Speaker 5: just slide and went all the way to the creek.

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Speaker 5: And bought him down there on the creek. And he

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Speaker 5: wasn't the biggest set of horns on the deer I've

200
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Speaker 5: ever killed, but that for a mountain buck. He was

201
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Speaker 5: probably a one hundred. I've weighed quite a few deer.

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Speaker 5: He'd weigh one hundred and seventy five or more. He

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Speaker 5: was a big, big buck. That apple rolling off air

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Speaker 5: that just if that apple hadn't rolled off their he

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Speaker 5: might not run up there in my face and let

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Speaker 5: me kill him. You know, I'd gut him. And I

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Speaker 5: never killed a deer that I couldn't throw on that horse.

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Speaker 5: I mean, I pick him up and put him up

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Speaker 5: on the throw him up on the saddle.

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Speaker 1: But I couldn't load this deer.

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Speaker 5: So I had to get my horse in a big

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Speaker 5: was shout in the creek and tied him up there

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Speaker 5: and drug that deer down. That old horse he is

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Speaker 5: generally you could pile deer all over him. And I

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Speaker 5: wrestled that deer up in the saddle tied his front

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Speaker 5: feet to one side of the saddle and his back

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Speaker 5: feet to the gird on the other side, and crawled

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Speaker 5: up in the saddle and wrote back to camp.

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Speaker 2: I love the live action drama of Dale's hunt. Just

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Speaker 2: when things seemed like they couldn't get better, a buck

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Speaker 2: responding to a grunt call. That's a good thing, things

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Speaker 2: got worse real quick with that rolling, jumping apple.

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Speaker 3: I laughed when he.

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Speaker 2: Said that apple was bouncing five feet off the ground.

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Speaker 2: But then when he thought everything was run, the deer

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Speaker 2: shockingly responded by running straight towards that apple, which it

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Speaker 2: clearly thought was a charging buck. That was a good

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Speaker 2: deer story Dale. Our next storyteller is Dale's good friend

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Speaker 2: Travis Ross. He's a full time ferrier and would bleed

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Speaker 2: cornbread if you cut him. Travis is gonna tell a

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Speaker 2: bit about his history as a deer hunter and when

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Speaker 2: Dale introduced him to a new way of hunting. You're

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Speaker 2: gonna hear a few names in this one that anybody

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Speaker 2: that's been listen then the bear grease for a while

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Speaker 2: might know. I'll give you a hint, genuine outlaws.

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Speaker 3: Here's Travis.

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Speaker 8: Well, this is Travis Russ My dad was a fox

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Speaker 8: and wolf hunter. He run run dogs, they run colts.

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Speaker 8: There was a bunch of that in this country back then,

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Speaker 8: go to field trials whatever. But we also, you know,

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Speaker 8: we deer hunting. We run deer with dogs. You get

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Speaker 8: on stand. Everybody gets a designate spot, and some stands

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Speaker 8: is better than others. But you sit there till the

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Speaker 8: dogs run a deer over you. I mean, I love

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Speaker 8: listening to them. I still do to this day. Love

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Speaker 8: hear a good race. So anyway, I've done that forever

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Speaker 8: and couldn't hard to kill nothing. I mean, it's hard

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Speaker 8: to kill a deer that's coming by you one hundred

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Speaker 8: mile an hour and when you shot at him, you

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Speaker 8: emptied your gun at him. You know, it's a totally

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Speaker 8: different way of hunt. It's just you just shoot till

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Speaker 8: you run out of bullets and you either kill it

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Speaker 8: or you do So anyway, I was a rodeo in

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Speaker 8: two at the time and team roping a little bit

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Speaker 8: and riding bulls, had horses, been working for Dale and

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Speaker 8: his dad, Dawn, working cattling whatever, working for them, And anyway,

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Speaker 8: one year there is nineteen ninety one, Dale said, uh,

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Speaker 8: why don't we go up in the mountains and uh

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Speaker 8: take our horses in there and uh go hunting, take

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Speaker 8: a bedroll.

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Speaker 3: We'll spend the.

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Speaker 8: Night, come up next day. And I'm like that parked

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Speaker 8: me up, you know, rifle pony in me. I'm all in,

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Speaker 8: I'm about that. Let's go. So we we do, and

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Speaker 8: we'd take off. We leave out about what daylight that morning.

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Speaker 8: We headed up in there and we rode about four

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Speaker 8: or five miles. We found a spot we were in camp.

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Speaker 8: We made camp, which we didn't make camp. We just

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Speaker 8: throw the stuff off our horses and tied them up.

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Speaker 3: We went hunting.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we hit it out hunh Well, after.

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Speaker 8: A little while, it wasn't very long. I heard a

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Speaker 8: two seventy gold up on side of the mountain. I

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Speaker 8: knew it was him. All well, cool, we got something.

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Speaker 8: And I'd seen some deer and this and that ren

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Speaker 8: You know, I didn't know what I was doing. There

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Speaker 8: ain't no dogs running after I was on up in

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Speaker 8: the afternoon. Probably I'm kind of up on the mountain

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Speaker 8: a little ways there. I heard a up up and

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Speaker 8: I'm listening. I know what that is, and directly got

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Speaker 8: a little closer, a little closer. There's some dogs come

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Speaker 8: over the mountain, and I got to looking there, just

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Speaker 8: a big long leg come off the mountain. It's coming

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Speaker 8: right to where I'm at. And I'm like, you know,

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Speaker 8: if they crossed where I think they are, I go

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Speaker 8: back in the dog mode.

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Speaker 7: They're going to run right down here.

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Speaker 8: And I used to open and middle of that leg

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Speaker 8: or that gap that was there, and I looked up.

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Speaker 8: Here come this buck just flying off that mountain, just

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Speaker 8: locking them dogs. Right after Well, I had my thirty

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Speaker 8: thirty Winchester full of bullets, like I knew how to do.

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Speaker 8: I went to Levern add him about forty yards and

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Speaker 8: I probably shot five or six times, didn't I I

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Speaker 8: about emptied it. But moral of the story is I

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Speaker 8: couldn't get away from the dog running and the dogs

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Speaker 8: wound up being Louidale and Charlie Edwards's dogs that were

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Speaker 8: running that deer, and I don't know where they come from.

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Speaker 8: Was that the same year we talked about hanging their

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Speaker 8: collars on the limb.

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Speaker 5: We were back in there later and they had some

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Speaker 5: dogs that come in there and just bet it up

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Speaker 5: with us. Sinatra was gonna take their tracking collars and

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Speaker 5: hang them up there.

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Speaker 8: He's gonna take their collars out and hang them on

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Speaker 8: top of the mountain, leave it up there.

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Speaker 5: But we didn't do no Charlie that second time, or no.

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Speaker 5: Louidale told me to eat. He said, I found where

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Speaker 5: you all been camping. Said I had to walk in

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Speaker 5: there and them dogs was betted up there eating up

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Speaker 5: scrapsy'all left. Yeah, I remember they walked in there and

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Speaker 5: got them dogs.

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Speaker 8: I never did tell Ludale. If I'd have told Louidale

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Speaker 8: about killing a deer in front of his dog, he

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Speaker 8: probably wouldn't have been mad, but he'd have wanted half

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Speaker 8: of that deer.

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Speaker 1: We was all friends.

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Speaker 8: He'd have just been like, I can't believe you killed

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Speaker 8: a deer in front of my dog and didn't tell me.

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Speaker 8: We just didn't tell him. Yeah, even though as my

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Speaker 8: first hunt in the mountains, I hunted every year probably

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Speaker 8: until past five years. Yeah, I have hunted them mountains

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Speaker 8: and old boots a horse. Boots was really good at

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Speaker 8: hauling deer and I added up. One year I hauled

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Speaker 8: thirty two deer out of the mountains on boots. I

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Speaker 8: mean you let him up to a deer, dropped the

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Speaker 8: reins on the ground and grabbed it and throwed it

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Speaker 8: on him, and he'd just kind of turn and look

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Speaker 8: at it and go and he'd go out of the

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Speaker 8: mountains just same speed as he went in, which was

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Speaker 8: really slow.

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Speaker 3: That was a good story, Travis Ross.

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Speaker 2: And for those who've been around Bear Greece for a while,

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Speaker 2: you'll remember our Genuine Outlaws series that started an episode

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Speaker 2: fIF two where we did a profile on Louisdale and

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Speaker 2: Charlie Edwards. That was one of our most listened to series,

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Speaker 2: right up there with Daniel Boone and Hulk Collier. Travis's

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Speaker 2: story also introduced us to deer hunting with dogs, which

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Speaker 2: is a long standing tradition in some parts of the country,

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Speaker 2: well actually very few parts of the country. We could

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Speaker 2: have a debate on the pros and cons of running

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Speaker 2: deer with dogs.

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Speaker 3: I'm well aware of the cons, but.

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Speaker 2: I believe the traditional use aspects of running dogs is

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Speaker 2: incredibly strong, and that the institution has an incalculatable cultural

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Speaker 2: value in the broad picture of American hunting in the

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Speaker 2: places where it's practiced. I'm an advocate for hunters and

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Speaker 2: traditional use practices. There are plenty of places where you

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Speaker 2: cannot run dogs if you don't want to be around running.

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Speaker 3: Dogs go to one of those places.

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Speaker 2: I believe in a person's right to hunt the way

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Speaker 2: they see fit, within the boundaries of the law and

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Speaker 2: within the big picture conservation agenda of where they're at.

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Speaker 2: I grew up as a bow hunter in an area

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Speaker 2: where everyone ran dogs, and I never had any trouble.

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Speaker 2: It's just something we calculated for.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 2: As we'll hear in later episodes, dog hunting is tough

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Speaker 2: and often and inefficient way to hunt. If your goal

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Speaker 2: is to kill deer, way more deer are killed over

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Speaker 2: food plots, corn piles, and out of tree.

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Speaker 3: Stands with bows and arrows.

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Speaker 2: I love the regional diversity of our country, and I

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Speaker 2: love supporting the way that people want to hunt. And

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Speaker 2: for the record, for the record, it's no joke to

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Speaker 2: take the callers off a hunting dog. That's why Dale

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Speaker 2: and Travis made a joke about taking callers off a

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Speaker 2: hunting dog. They knew not to do that, and they didn't,

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Speaker 2: and it was funny. Our next story teller is none

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Speaker 2: other than Andy Brown from Western Arkansas. He's one of

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Speaker 2: the best storytellers that I know. Andy's in his mid

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Speaker 2: sixties and has a long track record with the Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease podcast. He was a guest on the Louis Dellen

374
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Speaker 2: Charlie series, and he's told multiple deer in Turkey hunting

375
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Speaker 2: stories to us. That's part of the reason that I

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Speaker 2: asked him. Remember that I asked Andy specifically to tell

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Speaker 2: us this story, and it's about his upbringing and.

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Speaker 3: Particularly about his father.

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Speaker 2: I think this story gives some context from where Andy

380
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Speaker 2: came from, but really where we came from, and that

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Speaker 2: is important to not forget. In Andy's words, this one

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Speaker 2: is a little raw. And remember in this story, Andy

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Speaker 2: is ten years old. Here's Andy Brown.

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Speaker 6: Telling the story. What I'd like to do. I'd just

385
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Speaker 6: like to give you a little history about my dad.

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Speaker 6: My dad's name was Barney and he was tenth of

387
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Speaker 6: eleven kids born in nineteen nineteen, if that tells you anything.

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Speaker 6: So you know he had a lot of older siblings.

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Speaker 6: You know he was he was a little rough around

390
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Speaker 6: the edge, as you know. But I don't mind telling

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Speaker 6: you this. He was in reform school and when he

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Speaker 6: got out of reform school, he went to prison for

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Speaker 6: four months and twenty days back when he was in

394
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Speaker 6: his teenage years. And this is kind of funny too.

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Speaker 6: He did that. He broke into Dick Huddles history at

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Speaker 6: Pine Ridge, Yeah, and went to my uncle and my

397
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Speaker 6: uncle when him went to the Sheriff's office, he turned

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Speaker 6: himself in. But yeah, but Dad was just it was

399
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Speaker 6: a whole different generation. And Dad had a lot of faults.

400
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Speaker 6: But if he told you something, that's what he meant.

401
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:55,400
Speaker 6: He was true to his word. And I think that's

402
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,120
Speaker 6: important in our life is I think telling the truth

403
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Speaker 6: this most important thing to do. And Dad was that way.

404
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:07,640
Speaker 6: But he didn't really care what people thought. But anyway,

405
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Speaker 6: my dad was not what you would call a I

406
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Speaker 6: don't know. My dad was a dog man. He loved

407
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Speaker 6: his dogs, and you know, growing up, that's all I knew.

408
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,440
Speaker 6: I mean, to deer hunt was the dog hunting, and

409
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Speaker 6: everybody I knew dog hunting, some of those guys, you know,

410
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,880
Speaker 6: it wasn't really about the dog gray It was listening

411
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Speaker 6: to the dog's run, you know. But with Dad, deer

412
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Speaker 6: hunting was it was more. You know, I think about today,

413
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Speaker 6: how we're so wanting to kill a big deer and

414
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Speaker 6: a big rack of horns and brag about the horns.

415
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Speaker 6: That had nothing to do with the way things were then.

416
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Speaker 6: It was all about to meet. And I tell this

417
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Speaker 6: story a lot, but I was for five years I

418
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Speaker 6: grew up. I was the first one on the bus

419
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Speaker 6: route and I was the last one off every day.

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Speaker 6: And in five years we never seen but two deer

421
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Speaker 6: in those five years that we were on a bus route.

422
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Speaker 6: And this was country bus route. This wasn't a highway.

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Speaker 6: This was back in the sticks. To be honest with you,

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Speaker 6: I don't think that I saw the first ten or

425
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Speaker 6: eleven years of my life. I don't know that I

426
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Speaker 6: saw ten deer alive or dead. You know, people today

427
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,040
Speaker 6: can't imagine that as many deer as we got. I mean,

428
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:23,919
Speaker 6: you can leave right here in fifteen minutes you can

429
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 6: see a bunch of deer somewhere, you know, But there

430
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 6: wasn't any So deer hunting was the guys that get together,

431
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Speaker 6: and you know, back in those days, it was a

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Speaker 6: meat hunt. They wasn't after the horns. The old stories.

433
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Speaker 6: You can't bull, you can't buil somebody set of horns.

434
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Speaker 6: That's the way the more boys believed that. But anyway,

435
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 6: one particular story, that's it's a little raw, but this

436
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,720
Speaker 6: is kind of the way it was. We were north

437
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 6: of and dadd Attorney's dogs loose. They come back up

438
00:23:57,840 --> 00:23:59,639
Speaker 6: there on what we call the new road, and they

439
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,840
Speaker 6: turned north and they jumped, and we were trying to

440
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 6: you know, we were trying to shoot deer the road,

441
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 6: you know. I mean we manned the roads. And not

442
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 6: only do we man the roads, we manned the highways,

443
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 6: you know. And this is nineteen sixty six, you know,

444
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:20,120
Speaker 6: nineteen sixty six, nineteen sixty seven, and the first time

445
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 6: I ever stood on a stand, I had a single

446
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:23,720
Speaker 6: shot twenty two. That's why we hunted. And Dad had

447
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 6: a Winchester automatic twenty two. You know, back when you

448
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 6: were supposed to wear orange, we wore red. You know,

449
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 6: we have a red ball cap on or something red,

450
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 6: and lots of times not but this particular time Dad,

451
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 6: and I know Larry and Reebay wouldn't mind me saying this,

452
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 6: and Autis Ager was a great good friend of his,

453
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 6: and so me and Dad and Ottis and his son

454
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 6: Larry turned dogs loose up there in the north And

455
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:52,640
Speaker 6: in those days they had dogs that deer were going

456
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 6: to the river. I mean, that was the deal. They

457
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 6: would put them in the river. Eventually they were going

458
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 6: to go to the river. But anyway, they had made

459
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 6: a big rip in there north and run back in

460
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:06,400
Speaker 6: there on the creek and kind of lost it down

461
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 6: in the creek. And we were right north of a

462
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,359
Speaker 6: place called Hiland up there. Dad and I had pulled

463
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,199
Speaker 6: up there. And this is funny too. Dad had had

464
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 6: a fifty six Chevrolet pick up, and of course it

465
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 6: was a great truck with a red door, got.

466
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 7: A red door on the left side.

467
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 6: And it did the door didn't last, so we had

468
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,879
Speaker 6: to bail it. You know, you're bailing warded, you know

469
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,400
Speaker 6: it would. But anyway, we was up there and Dad says,

470
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 6: come on, let's go down on the creek. See we

471
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:35,240
Speaker 6: catch the dogs. So about the time we headed off

472
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,639
Speaker 6: the road there, the dogs just jumped out of the

473
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 6: creek and they headed back west. And Dad says, they're

474
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 6: going to Nelson Hoover Curve. We jumping that old fifty

475
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,199
Speaker 6: six and men, now there we went, and I'm telling you,

476
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 6: sideways in the road and down there around the grave,

477
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 6: we'd have met somebody. We'd just run over them, was

478
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:55,639
Speaker 6: all we'd have done. Here we go up the highway

479
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,720
Speaker 6: going west, just as fast as that old truck had

480
00:25:57,800 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 6: run and had a three speed on the call and

481
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 6: probably a sixder. But anyway, we was running just as

482
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 6: fast as she'd run. And so we run up there

483
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 6: and when we start around the curve, Dad goes to

484
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 6: slow him down. He said, they're going to cross right here.

485
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 6: And about that time, here comes the deer off the

486
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 6: bank of the road, and if it gets across the highway,

487
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 6: it's gone to the river, you know. And Dad said, hold.

488
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 7: On, he said, he said, he said, hold ond.

489
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:30,639
Speaker 6: He slung that thing up the second gear and we

490
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,119
Speaker 6: just run that deer down and just run over it

491
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 6: like I just run over. And what he did the

492
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 6: hair just bull like you busted a pillow, you know,

493
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 6: in the front end. And he looks back and it's

494
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 6: getting up. He throws are reversed. We run back over

495
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,920
Speaker 6: the back over and the hair is just this going,

496
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,800
Speaker 6: you know. Anyway, Dad jumps out of the truck with

497
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 6: the twenty two and shoots it and it runs off

498
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 6: up in the woods, and you know, we're on the highway.

499
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:00,840
Speaker 6: I mean, we're right, we're on the highway. Of course,

500
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,880
Speaker 6: in nineteen sixty six there's not a lot of traffic on.

501
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 3: The highway anyway.

502
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 6: About that time here comes about twelve of them. July

503
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:11,359
Speaker 6: is off the bank of the road out out in

504
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 6: the highway and Aunus and Larry pull up and they're

505
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 6: trying to gather dogs and the cars going by, and

506
00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 6: so we run up the bank and that deer is

507
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 6: just laying right inside the woods there and Dad grabs

508
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 6: it by the leggings that come on back off the

509
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 6: bank and there's a big high clay bank there. We

510
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,920
Speaker 6: head back off that. Here comes the car. Dad just

511
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 6: sits down on that deer.

512
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 3: Right on the side of the road on the bank.

513
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 6: You know. There he sense on this steer giving her

514
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 6: one of these As the cars go by anyway, we

515
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 6: know that thing and gather the dogs up and now

516
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 6: there we went. But you know, I tell that story

517
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 6: that you know that sounds cruel, but there wasn't a

518
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 6: smidgeon of that deer went to waste, and it was

519
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,080
Speaker 6: it was quite a treat for us, you know, in

520
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 6: those days. I don't even know klay if there was

521
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 6: fifty sixty deer killed in the county total in those days.

522
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 6: And to kill a buck deer was just it was unbelievable.

523
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 6: And I said all that say this, you know, Dad,

524
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 6: he probably didn't kill twenty five deer in his entire life.

525
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 6: And he had my uncle John, which was sixteen years

526
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 6: older than him. There was a hunter two. He killed

527
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 6: three in his entire life. So when the guys got

528
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 6: together and killed a deer, it was a big deal.

529
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 6: Everybody split it. There was none that went to waste.

530
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 6: In fact, Dad would he would bring when he would

531
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:37,440
Speaker 6: come in. A lot of people didn't like the heart

532
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 6: and liver. Well Dad did and we did too. And

533
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,479
Speaker 6: Mother could cook that stuff, to fry that liver and

534
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 6: make a big pan of gravy. Be where's the gravy

535
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 6: was the best far as you know, but god, it

536
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 6: was good. And she'd take the heart and do the

537
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 6: same thing. And then he would take lots of times

538
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 6: to make a piece of neck, you know, And she

539
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,440
Speaker 6: would cut part of the meat off the neck and

540
00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 6: she'd fry at forest, you know, And then she would

541
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 6: take the neck bone and put it in a big

542
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 6: old pot of bowl and water and throw salt to

543
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 6: it and you know, buill it and we'd suck the

544
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 6: meat out and the bones and the broth. But whole

545
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 6: different world, you know. When I was thinking about this

546
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 6: podcast and what somebody might think about what I just

547
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 6: said about running over the deer toy we did. She'd

548
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 6: run over deer once. We run over the deer twice,

549
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 6: you know, and shoot the deer. But I think about

550
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 6: I think about some of the other podcasts you've done,

551
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 6: and you know, some people being critical, a little bit

552
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 6: critical about the way people did things in those days.

553
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 6: But you know, really my dad was from a generation

554
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 6: that wouldn't have cared what they thought. I mean, he

555
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 6: would not have cared. But that's just the way he was,

556
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 6: you know, That's the way we grew up. And you know,

557
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 6: thank god, down the road, I had an uncle that

558
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:55,720
Speaker 6: took he interested in me and taught me how to

559
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 6: steal honey.

560
00:29:56,400 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 2: You know, that was a good story and a reminder

561
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,480
Speaker 2: of where we've come from. When I think about a

562
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 2: story like this and how much I love it. Clearly,

563
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 2: no one, no one including Andy, is suggesting that we

564
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 2: be trying to hit deer with our cars. But the

565
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 2: story does a great job of showing just how valuable that.

566
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 3: Deer were to these people.

567
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 2: Which that value would roll right into Andy's life, which

568
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 2: he translated into becoming a master woodsman and hunter, and

569
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 2: that would roll into his son my friend Scott Brown,

570
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 2: also master woodsman and deer hunter and now into Scott's Boys.

571
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 2: Thanks for telling us about your dad, Andy, I think

572
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 2: that helps put a lot of this in perspective for

573
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 2: us today. Our next storyteller is none other than my

574
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 2: old friend Moe Shepherd, another Bear Grease regular and a

575
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 2: master public land deer hunters. Got a unique story with

576
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 2: a mysterious end. I know you're gonna enjoy it. Here's mope, Okay.

577
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 7: This deer story took place in the northwest part of

578
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 7: Arkansas and those Arc Mountains. It was a late season

579
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 7: hunt at the time. There was a muzzler or season

580
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 7: ran in latter part of December. I'd already killed a

581
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 7: pretty nice buck earlier in the year, and the mask

582
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 7: crop was pretty low that year, which made it easier

583
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 7: to find deer when its mast is low in the

584
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 7: mountains and they really concentrate on where there is some mast.

585
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 7: I'd hunted in this particular earlier in the year and

586
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 7: found quite a bit of sign. I didn't kill a

587
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:44,719
Speaker 7: deer in there anything, but I found quite a bit

588
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 7: of sign anyway. About three days prior to when I

589
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 7: was going to hunt. This was about I think it

590
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 7: was in the year two thousand. I blazed when it

591
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 7: was and there was a big snow and ice storm

592
00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 7: head in northwest Arkansas about the fifteenth or sixteenth of December. Anyway,

593
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 7: I decided, well, all that stuff on it was, like

594
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 7: I said, there was six seven eight inches of snow

595
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 7: and ice on everything, so it had all the ground

596
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 7: stuff covered up. So I thought where I wanted to hunt.

597
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:14,800
Speaker 7: I had a couple of days to hunt. I thought, well,

598
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 7: I'm gonna go up in the head of this big

599
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 7: canyon where I've had success before, and I was in

600
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 7: there earlier, and there was a lot of I don't

601
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 7: know what the real name for is. When I was

602
00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 7: a kid growing up, they called them sawbars. A lot

603
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 7: of people call them green briars. There was a lot

604
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 7: of those up in the trees. There were some old

605
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 7: home places in there where I was hunting at, and

606
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 7: I knew deer would be feeding on them because they

607
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 7: couldn't get anything under the frozen forest floor, even if

608
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 7: there was acres anything. So I decided to go in

609
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 7: there and hunt, but it was really cold. It was

610
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 7: in the teens, so I didn't even hunt that morning.

611
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 7: Well I'm gonna go in there in the afternoon when

612
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 7: the sun comes out and it's a little bit warmer.

613
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 7: So I made my way down in there over this

614
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 7: slick train and family a good place and got set

615
00:32:57,560 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 7: up on the ground there where I could see down

616
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 7: into some of these green briars. And I didn't even

617
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 7: go down there where they was at, but I knew

618
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:05,960
Speaker 7: there was some deer, and I thought, if there's deer

619
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 7: in here, they're gonna come around to these and feet.

620
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 7: So I got set there, and i'd set there quite

621
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 7: a while I hadn't seen a thing, and then it

622
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 7: was probably hour before dark. I seen some movement and

623
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 7: I seen a deer coming around the hillside. It was

624
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 7: coming towards me, but it was still way out of

625
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 7: muzzleload to range. I was just shooting with an old

626
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 7: Thompson Center renegade muzzleloader with open sites, and I could

627
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 7: see this deer and then it would vanish in the

628
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 7: green bars, but I could see it pretty good and

629
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 7: when it would move because all that ice and snow

630
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 7: was on the ground, Finally it got in range of me.

631
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 7: And I wasn't very smart that day that I didn't

632
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 7: take me no binoculars or anything. I was just using

633
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 7: my eyes. And finally it got and it raised its

634
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,680
Speaker 7: head and I see it was a pretty nice buck,

635
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 7: but it was facing towards me, so I thought, well,

636
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,680
Speaker 7: I'll just be patient and wait. Finally it got down there,

637
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 7: probably sixty yards from me or so, and kind of

638
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 7: turned sideways and raised its head up, eat some green bars,

639
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 7: and I draw the bead on it. Shot. When I shot,

640
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 7: of course the smoke ball and I couldn't see nothing,

641
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 7: but I seen the deer running off the same way

642
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 7: it came from, back around the hillside. It was about

643
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:10,759
Speaker 7: the hour of dark then, so I sat there a

644
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 7: little bit set there, and I thought, well, I need

645
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,759
Speaker 7: to go see if i'd hit it or not. So

646
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 7: I walked around there to where i'd shot, and sure

647
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:18,840
Speaker 7: enough there was a little bit of hair on that

648
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 7: ice and snow and a few specks of blood, and

649
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 7: I thought, well, I've made a head on it, so

650
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:25,440
Speaker 7: it's getting going to get dark pretty quick. I got

651
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 7: my buzzleload to reloaded, so I started trailing it. I

652
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 7: trailed it around probably fifty or seventy five yards, and

653
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:34,280
Speaker 7: then I couldn't hardly find any blood, and you couldn't

654
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 7: hardly see where the deer went because that stuff was

655
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 7: frozen so hard. Then I realized I didn't even have

656
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 7: a light on me. I'd forgot to bring a light

657
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 7: or anything with me, and it was cold. I thought, well,

658
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 7: it's in the teens here. This deer is not going

659
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,319
Speaker 7: to spoil if I did get it, I'm gonna walk

660
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 7: out here and come back early in the morning. So

661
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 7: I did. I went home and slept the best I

662
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,760
Speaker 7: could myself. I just can't sleep good when I'm thinking

663
00:34:57,760 --> 00:34:59,319
Speaker 7: about something like that the next morning, but I did

664
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,920
Speaker 7: get some breast, so I got in there and went

665
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 7: back in there the next morning when I could see good,

666
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 7: went right back to where I was sat and looked

667
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 7: it all over again, and went back out to where

668
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 7: I found the first blood. Didn't see where I hid anything,

669
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:14,960
Speaker 7: So I thought, I've made it. I should have made a,

670
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 7: you know, a fatal hit on this deer. So I

671
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 7: went to where I found the last bud, walk a

672
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,239
Speaker 7: few specks, and I went to circling and I found

673
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 7: a few more spots of blood. I tracked it probably

674
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 7: another fifty or seventy five yards, and now I look

675
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,760
Speaker 7: out there in front of me, and I see coloration

676
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 7: on the snow. So I go out there, and there

677
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 7: is this blood everywhere on this snow. I figured the

678
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,919
Speaker 7: deer laid down there or something other. I mean, there's

679
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 7: a lot of blood, Like, I don't see how this

680
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:43,240
Speaker 7: deer is not laying right here. There's so much blood

681
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 7: on this snow and ice, you know. And I've killed

682
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 7: a lot of deer through the years, and when one

683
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 7: bleeds that much, it's I just don't see hat could

684
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 7: live anyway. But there's no deer there. And I look

685
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 7: all around. I look up the hill, I look down

686
00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,799
Speaker 7: the hill. I can't find no blood other than right there.

687
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 7: Its blood is just scattered everywhere there. So I just

688
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,320
Speaker 7: start circling in there. I started making my circles.

689
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:06,840
Speaker 1: Bigger and bigger.

690
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 7: I spend all day in there looking for that deer,

691
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:12,080
Speaker 7: mostly around the hill and down the hill. I just

692
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 7: don't see how this deer got up and got out

693
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 7: of here, but it's bound to it because it's not here.

694
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 7: So I looked all the rest that day, and finally

695
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 7: I just give up. I thought I ain't going to

696
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 7: find it. I don't know how it done it, but

697
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:26,760
Speaker 7: out it got up and got away from me. Anyway,

698
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 7: I stayed here almost dark, left back out of there,

699
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,279
Speaker 7: and went home, jumped forward a little ways. That was

700
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,320
Speaker 7: in December, the same area I turkey hunt a lot,

701
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:42,040
Speaker 7: so it was in the first part April, whenever Turkey

702
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 7: season open. I was in there turkey hunting, but I

703
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 7: wasn't down as far as I was when I shot

704
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:49,759
Speaker 7: the deer. That didn't even cross my money other than

705
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,080
Speaker 7: I was thinking, you know, this is where I lost

706
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:53,960
Speaker 7: that deer. This is where I lost that deer back

707
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,480
Speaker 7: in December. Didn't find it.

708
00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 8: Well.

709
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 7: I'm going around a little in their bench up higher,

710
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:02,279
Speaker 7: about two little short benches, probably only one hundred and

711
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,480
Speaker 7: fifty yards up the hill, and I'm pretty close to

712
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 7: where I had lost that deer, and I see something

713
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 7: white around the hillside there on this same bench I'm

714
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,000
Speaker 7: walking on. I thought, what am I seeing? I don't

715
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:15,719
Speaker 7: know what that is, but something's white out there in

716
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 7: a tree. And I get a little bit closer and

717
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,840
Speaker 7: I can make out looks almost like some bone white.

718
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 7: I thought, what am I seeing up in that tree?

719
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,319
Speaker 7: And it's a big old tree. It's a big old

720
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 7: gum tree that's growed down the steep hillside, and it

721
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:30,880
Speaker 7: kind of leans a little bit, but it's it's not

722
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 7: leaned very much. You couldn't walk up it or anything.

723
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 7: You'd have to hug it and climb it to.

724
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 6: Get up it.

725
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 7: And I walk on out there where I'm seeing that

726
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,880
Speaker 7: white and I look up in the tree and lo

727
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,879
Speaker 7: and behold there is a deer's skull and the set

728
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:48,399
Speaker 7: of horns that looks like the deer that i'd shot it.

729
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 7: It was like an eight point. It's a pretty nice

730
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 7: mountain deer eight point. And the whole spinal column back

731
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 7: to the pelvic area was all intact, laying up in

732
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 7: a fork on this big gum tree. And I just

733
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,319
Speaker 7: stood there for a while and I'm thinking, how did

734
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 7: that get up there? Then I'm thinking, could that be

735
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 7: my deer that I shot that I couldn't find right

736
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:13,359
Speaker 7: down below here? And then I'm still thinking, but how

737
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 7: in the world did it get up in that tree?

738
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 7: And I'm thinking of everything. I thought, well, if that's it,

739
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,440
Speaker 7: that could explain why I didn't find the deer, you know,

740
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:25,600
Speaker 7: But I said, I just can't believe that it got

741
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 7: up from all that blood and came up this hill.

742
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 7: But then how did it get up in this tree?

743
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:31,640
Speaker 4: You know?

744
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 7: I had three thoughts. I thought, maybe a great big

745
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,480
Speaker 7: bobcat drug this carcass or these bones up in this tree,

746
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:41,200
Speaker 7: or maybe a bear drug it up in this tree.

747
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,239
Speaker 7: Or maybe something is really rare in this part of Arkansas,

748
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,800
Speaker 7: maybe a mountain lion. I'm not sure how that carcass

749
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:51,839
Speaker 7: got up there, but it was way up in this tree.

750
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 7: It was probably fifteen or eighteen feet up in this

751
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,799
Speaker 7: fork in this tree. I'm skeptical by a lot of

752
00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:01,320
Speaker 7: things than most people are up and drug that carcass

753
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 7: up into that tree. Whether it was drug up in

754
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 7: there when it was still full size, or if it's

755
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 7: a totally different deer, I don't know. That's that's just

756
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,760
Speaker 7: my assumption. I think that's the deer that I shot

757
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 7: in December. But to me, that may explain how all

758
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:18,520
Speaker 7: that blood was down there and then it just vanished.

759
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:23,360
Speaker 7: But in this same drainage at this time, I hadn't

760
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,800
Speaker 7: seen one in there. But about three or four years

761
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,080
Speaker 7: after that, I was bow hunting back in here on

762
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 7: the other side of the canyon, which was about a

763
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 7: mile away, and I was bow hunting and a climber

764
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 7: tree stand and Clay Knukin may not believe it but

765
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:40,759
Speaker 7: I told him about it. Anyway, I was sitting in

766
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 7: a tree stand and see something moving coming around the hillside,

767
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:45,839
Speaker 7: and I thought, well, here comes a deer. And then

768
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,279
Speaker 7: it got within about thirty five forty yards of me,

769
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 7: and then I seen a cat's head come out of

770
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 7: some little bushes there. I thought, good gosh, that's a

771
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:58,200
Speaker 7: huge bobcat. And then it walks on out from the

772
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:01,319
Speaker 7: bushes in the wide opened it probably thirty thirty five

773
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 7: yards from me, and it's not a bobcat. It's a

774
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 7: cougar or mountain lion. It's got a long tail, and

775
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,360
Speaker 7: it comes walking by me and then vanishes into the

776
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,319
Speaker 7: bushes just as quick as it came out. I saw

777
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:17,920
Speaker 7: it for probably eight or ten seconds walking in front

778
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:22,000
Speaker 7: of me. But in hindsight, at the time that I

779
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,800
Speaker 7: found that carcass while I was turkey hunting, I believe

780
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 7: it had to be one of those three things. It

781
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 7: had to be either a bear or a big bobcat

782
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 7: or possible mountain lion. I think drug that carcass away

783
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 7: and stored it up in that tree to eat on

784
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 7: the remnants of the bones. Like I said, when it

785
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 7: drugg it up there, I don't know, but that's my

786
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 7: theory on the deer that I lost with my muzzloder

787
00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:48,800
Speaker 7: and then found the carcass the following spring during Turkey Sea.

788
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 7: I have that skull and the horns off of that

789
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:53,160
Speaker 7: deer that is up in that tree. I always have

790
00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 7: ropes and stuff with me, you know, for pulling up stuff,

791
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:58,799
Speaker 7: for tying stuff up in a tree if I get

792
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 7: it a hunting some rugged trunk. And I remember, I thought,

793
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 7: how can I get that out of that tree? So

794
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 7: I took some of my rope that I had in

795
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 7: my pouch, and I tied a rock onto it, and

796
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:12,160
Speaker 7: I started throwing it on that rope up at that

797
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 7: and I finally throwed it up and I don't know

798
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,920
Speaker 7: if it's stuck through the ribcage or what, but it

799
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,040
Speaker 7: stuck any enough I was able to jerk and pull

800
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 7: around it, and I pulled that whole thing down out

801
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:23,319
Speaker 7: of the forks of that tree. And I still have

802
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 7: that skull and that eight point rack hanging in my

803
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:29,480
Speaker 7: house right now that I retrieved that day during Turkey season.

804
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,680
Speaker 7: And also for a final word on all this, I

805
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 7: hope that Gary believer Nucombe is listens to this story

806
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:40,879
Speaker 7: and that way, maybe that he'll be a little more

807
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,319
Speaker 7: believer than what he is right now that they're out there.

808
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,319
Speaker 3: MO, that was a good story. But now it's my

809
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:51,240
Speaker 3: turn to tell you what I think. I believe.

810
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:53,720
Speaker 2: It probably was a mountain lion that stole your buck,

811
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:58,240
Speaker 2: but not the one you claimed to have seen, because

812
00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:01,640
Speaker 2: ten mountain lions rarely rag their kills up in trees.

813
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,400
Speaker 2: Everybody knows that, but I happened to be an expert

814
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 2: on a particular type of feline that does. I'm certain

815
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:12,680
Speaker 2: the critter that stole your buck was none other than

816
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 2: a black panther.

817
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 3: He drug it up in that gum tree.

818
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,719
Speaker 2: The haters will say it's a lie, but I know

819
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 2: the truth. That was a good story, MO, man, what

820
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 2: a mystery, What a mystery. Our next story is a

821
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 2: short one from my good buddy, Aaron Standful. He's an

822
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 2: incredible deer hunter who's killed twenty four bucks that have

823
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 2: scored over the poping young minimum with his bow. But

824
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 2: guess what, when I asked him to tell the story,

825
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,600
Speaker 2: not one of those bucks came to his mind, but

826
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 2: this story did. Here's an unconventional deer story from Aaron Stanfil.

827
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 4: I'm not sure where to start. But well, you know,

828
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:07,080
Speaker 4: back in those days, I didn't even start bow hunting

829
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:10,759
Speaker 4: seriously till I was twenty one. Didn't really start really

830
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 4: bow hunting until nineteen ninety seven. You know. Prior to that,

831
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,320
Speaker 4: the deer numbers from where I was from just weren't there,

832
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 4: and if they were, I was unaware of them. Just

833
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:25,360
Speaker 4: to see a deer out of a tree stand was awesome.

834
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 4: A buck would have been a whole nother deal, but

835
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 4: we didn't care at the time. We were just trying

836
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 4: to kill a deer. We were just learning how to

837
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:36,399
Speaker 4: archery hunt, and it was a big deal to kill

838
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 4: a deer with a bow and arrow. It was October

839
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:45,319
Speaker 4: of two thousand and one public land, northwest Arkansas, and

840
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 4: we had just a mass crop of white oak acorns

841
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,799
Speaker 4: that year. The trees were just loaded, and I had

842
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:55,399
Speaker 4: found a ridge that was just full of deer sign

843
00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:58,360
Speaker 4: I mean, there was droppings everywhere. And it was the

844
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 4: first year that I had to climbing tree stand so

845
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 4: it made me more mobile. But anyway, I got up

846
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 4: in this huge pine tree and I'm sitting there and

847
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 4: acrons are just falling everywhere. I mean, it's just raining

848
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,919
Speaker 4: white oaks, and directly I see these two little deer.

849
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:17,919
Speaker 4: They're feeding up this ridge towards me. And every time

850
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 4: that the acrons would fall, I would notice that these

851
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,239
Speaker 4: these little deer would just they just go over there

852
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:24,319
Speaker 4: right where they fell and just start eating them. And

853
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:26,839
Speaker 4: they'd eat a couple there, and then they'd fall over here,

854
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:29,880
Speaker 4: and then they'd go over there, tree to tree, and

855
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 4: I thought, man, it's like, well, wish they'd get in here.

856
00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 4: And I watched them for over an hour nothing. They

857
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 4: just kept going back and forth, and the meanwhile, I'm

858
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:39,760
Speaker 4: about to go to the bathroom in my pants.

859
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:41,840
Speaker 1: I've got to go so bad.

860
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 4: And back then I didn't go in a bottle. I

861
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:47,319
Speaker 4: didn't go on the ground. I thought you had to

862
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:50,000
Speaker 4: hold it or you would get winded, you know. So

863
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:52,760
Speaker 4: I'm like, man, I can't hold it anymore. I've got

864
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 4: to go to the bathroom. So I start doing my

865
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 4: business here and I go just a little bit. And

866
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,680
Speaker 4: when I did, it just went. It was super dry

867
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 4: in the leaves and it just.

868
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 3: Went like that.

869
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 4: Well those deer they just threw their ears up and

870
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 4: just looked over there, and I was like, hey, this

871
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 4: might work, and it I immediately went from just going

872
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 4: the bathroom to like calling a deer in by going

873
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:20,280
Speaker 4: the bathroom.

874
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 6: You know.

875
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:24,440
Speaker 4: So I started going again, and they just throw their

876
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 4: head up again, and they.

877
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 3: Start coming towards me.

878
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean like and then just stop.

879
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 6: You know.

880
00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 4: Well they just get closer and closer and closer. And

881
00:45:34,719 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 4: I thought, no one's gonna believe.

882
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:37,160
Speaker 6: No one's gonna believe this.

883
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 4: By the way, well I just I did that for

884
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 4: like ten times. I mean I had to go. Well,

885
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,880
Speaker 4: finally they get in there, like right in front of me.

886
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 4: You know, I thought, I cannot believe this just happened. Well,

887
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 4: I drew back and I just smoked that first little

888
00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:56,840
Speaker 4: old sucker. She runs over there. I thought it was

889
00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:59,120
Speaker 4: I thought it was a little doe. It ran over

890
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:02,919
Speaker 4: there and died, and the other one just ran off.

891
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:05,880
Speaker 4: But here it come back. It just come back. I

892
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 4: guess it wanted to check on it. It's buddy, you know.

893
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:10,960
Speaker 7: And I shot it too, and I was so proud.

894
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 7: I was so excited.

895
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:13,680
Speaker 4: I thought, no one's gonna believe that I a lured

896
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 4: these deery and by going to the bathroom. Uh, and

897
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,520
Speaker 4: I end up I ended up killing a little button buck,

898
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:22,880
Speaker 4: and uh, I killed a buck and a doe, and uh.

899
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 4: We still call that button buck ridge to this day.

900
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 2: That's some innovative deer calling aaron about as good as

901
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 2: Dale Craig rolling an apple down the hill. I love

902
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 2: to celebrate a big buck, but I love celebrating just

903
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 2: a good deer hunt. Some of my most memorable stories

904
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 2: weren't the big ones, and I think it's important we

905
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 2: celebrate them. That's what my dad, Gary Believer Nukeam, taught

906
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:55,279
Speaker 2: me is that any deer is a real trophy. That's

907
00:46:55,280 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 2: the bear grease way. Our next storytelling is me. This

908
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:04,840
Speaker 2: is one of my favorite stories about a red oak

909
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 2: raining acrens on a field edge. It would have been

910
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:13,959
Speaker 2: about two thousand and six. My daughter was four years old,

911
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:18,279
Speaker 2: and it was early bow season in northwest Arkansas. And

912
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:23,320
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, I don't recall the circumstances, but Misty

913
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,840
Speaker 2: was doing something and I had my oldest daughter, Willow

914
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:31,439
Speaker 2: with me for the afternoon, which was very common, and

915
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 2: I wanted to go deer hunting, but also had Willow.

916
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:35,839
Speaker 3: She's four years old.

917
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 2: I had been on places I'd hunted for a long time,

918
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:43,160
Speaker 2: a piece of private ground up here in the day before,

919
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,919
Speaker 2: I'd been on that farm and I had just drove

920
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,799
Speaker 2: through a pasture and there was a big red oak,

921
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 2: I bet it's four foot in diameter, growing along the

922
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:56,720
Speaker 2: bank of a creek, and it was raining red oak acorns.

923
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:59,320
Speaker 3: And I watched about two.

924
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,120
Speaker 2: Hours before a group of deer come out of the

925
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 2: field and just make a beeline for that red oak.

926
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 2: And I took note of that. And it wasn't the

927
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:10,120
Speaker 2: kind of place that you would typically set up to hunt.

928
00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:12,320
Speaker 2: It just was kind of on the edge of a field,

929
00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:15,600
Speaker 2: out in the wide open. It was a long ways

930
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:18,600
Speaker 2: from any cover, and the tree was so big you

931
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:21,240
Speaker 2: couldn't put a stand in it, and there was nowhere

932
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 2: else to put a stand for that tree. Well, that

933
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:28,799
Speaker 2: afternoon came and I just I said, well, let's go

934
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:32,400
Speaker 2: deer hunting, and so I loaded up a bunch of

935
00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:35,359
Speaker 2: snacks and some books. And I knew something about that

936
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 2: particular tree that I hadn't told you yet is that

937
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 2: it's set right on the cut bank of the creek,

938
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:46,400
Speaker 2: meaning it was the outside bend of this creek.

939
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:48,759
Speaker 3: So the front side of this tree is looking out

940
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 3: over a big field.

941
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:53,200
Speaker 2: I mean, the roots of this tree are hanging out

942
00:48:53,239 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 2: into thin air over this creek, and this this creek

943
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 2: is eroding the roots, and there's about a four foot

944
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 2: cut bank directly behind the tree.

945
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:05,520
Speaker 3: That's point number one.

946
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:08,640
Speaker 2: Number two is is this red oak was growing out

947
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 2: along the edge of this field for so long that

948
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:14,960
Speaker 2: it had some fairly low hanging limbs.

949
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:15,480
Speaker 3: Which is unusual.

950
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,360
Speaker 2: You know, a big red oak in the timber is

951
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:21,279
Speaker 2: going to have limbs twenty foot up. This tree had

952
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 2: had a limb unusually low to the ground, which would

953
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:29,640
Speaker 2: allow for a young spry man like myself to climb

954
00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:34,160
Speaker 2: up it. So I take Willow with me out to

955
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:38,760
Speaker 2: that tree, and I set her down on the cut bank,

956
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:43,040
Speaker 2: cleared out a little spot in the rocks, and set

957
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:48,800
Speaker 2: her right beside that tree, and gave her her books

958
00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:53,840
Speaker 2: and her candy, and I shimmeied up that tree to

959
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:57,320
Speaker 2: a big limb about as big a round as a

960
00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:01,320
Speaker 2: big man's thigh, that was about eight feet nine feet

961
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 2: off the ground. And I sat on the limb of

962
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:08,319
Speaker 2: that red oak, and I could look directly below me

963
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 2: and just to the back and see Willow and make

964
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:14,880
Speaker 2: eye contact with her and talk to her. But to

965
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:19,200
Speaker 2: the field, she was totally out of sight completely. She

966
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:22,319
Speaker 2: could have stood up and the deer coming wouldn't have

967
00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:25,480
Speaker 2: been able to see her. You know, I tied my

968
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:27,960
Speaker 2: bow on a string. I set her down there, and.

969
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 3: I say, Willow, I'm gonna climb up in that tree

970
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:32,440
Speaker 3: and wait for a deer. We got to be quiet.

971
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:35,360
Speaker 2: But you read your books and if you need anything,

972
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:38,160
Speaker 2: we can talk. But we just have to talk quiet.

973
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 2: And you read your books and eat your snacks, and uh,

974
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:43,440
Speaker 2: we're gonna sit here for a while. And you know,

975
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:46,440
Speaker 2: made it a big, big something fun in the adventure.

976
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 2: And man, she sat down there and she read her

977
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 2: books and played and I would just look down and

978
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:56,120
Speaker 2: watch her. You know, she's probably thirteen fourteen feet below me,

979
00:50:56,520 --> 00:51:00,560
Speaker 2: just directly. And man, I hadn't set there an hour.

980
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:02,880
Speaker 2: And I look across the field and I see a

981
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:05,640
Speaker 2: dough deer step out of that field. And she looks

982
00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:08,759
Speaker 2: both ways and kind of meanders around, and directly she

983
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:13,239
Speaker 2: just comes straight to this red oak. And I draw

984
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 2: back my Matthews, Z Max, and that deer is about

985
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 2: twelve yards away, and shoot that deer just tendring that dough.

986
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:25,480
Speaker 3: She doesn't make it out of the field. Willow hears

987
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 3: me shoot.

988
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:29,000
Speaker 2: I look down and she's looking up, and I'm like,

989
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:33,040
Speaker 2: got her, and we go retrieve that deer and go home.

990
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:37,560
Speaker 2: That hunt was special to me just just because of

991
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:42,319
Speaker 2: a unique circumstance. And I think that's part of being

992
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,319
Speaker 2: a hunter and being having a family, which so many

993
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:48,320
Speaker 2: of us do, is you got to make things work.

994
00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:52,960
Speaker 2: And so I accomplished a bunch that day. I didn't

995
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:56,359
Speaker 2: neglect my responsibilities as a father, took my daughter out

996
00:51:56,360 --> 00:52:00,319
Speaker 2: into the wild and accomplished a big time going at

997
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:02,279
Speaker 2: the time, which was to kill a deer with a

998
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 2: bow and arrow over a red oak, rain and acrons.

999
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 3: Big day. I love it.

1000
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 2: I'll never forget looking down from the limb of that

1001
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:18,360
Speaker 2: red oak at my daughter tucked in behind the cutbank

1002
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,239
Speaker 2: with her books and snacks.

1003
00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:22,320
Speaker 3: And cute little smile.

1004
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:26,560
Speaker 2: She was laughing, playing and smiling less than twenty yards

1005
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 2: from North America's wiliest critter, a white tailed dough.

1006
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 3: I love it.

1007
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:35,200
Speaker 2: Our final story is told by a guy that I've

1008
00:52:35,239 --> 00:52:38,920
Speaker 2: known most of my life, Luke Austin. He's a veteran

1009
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:41,360
Speaker 2: hunter and woodsman, and I know that you're going to

1010
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:46,759
Speaker 2: enjoy this one. It exemplifies what honting means to us,

1011
00:52:47,520 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 2: and hey, this is a big buck story.

1012
00:52:49,920 --> 00:52:50,480
Speaker 3: Here's Luke.

1013
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: So I've got two step sons, and I call them

1014
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:01,560
Speaker 1: my sons because they are just because that step don't

1015
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 1: mean nothing to me. They're my boys. I've been with

1016
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 1: both of them hunting. Every hunt we've been on has

1017
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:09,359
Speaker 1: meant something to me. Like I didn't realize how much

1018
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:13,400
Speaker 1: it would mean to me too for my sons to

1019
00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 1: kill a deer, and just a deer in general, but

1020
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 1: also kill a buck deer that was really worth, you know,

1021
00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:23,400
Speaker 1: showing off being proud of out there at my farm.

1022
00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:28,840
Speaker 1: I had been basically managing the deer, being extremely tight

1023
00:53:28,920 --> 00:53:31,799
Speaker 1: on what we shot, and I've kind of at the

1024
00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:36,480
Speaker 1: point in my hunting career I specifically target mature bucks.

1025
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 1: I've not always been that way. That's just something that's

1026
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:41,719
Speaker 1: occurred in the last four or five years, which has

1027
00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: been very fulfilling to be able to have years and

1028
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:47,440
Speaker 1: years of history with a specific buck.

1029
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:47,640
Speaker 3: Well.

1030
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:51,080
Speaker 1: I had this particular deer. We had four years of

1031
00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:54,680
Speaker 1: game camera pictures of him, never during the day. I'd

1032
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:57,480
Speaker 1: seen him during the day one time in three years,

1033
00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:00,839
Speaker 1: and he was right there at our place, which up

1034
00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:04,439
Speaker 1: until probably five years ago. I could count on one

1035
00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:07,040
Speaker 1: hand how many deer I'd seen our on our plays,

1036
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 1: like there were no deer. Probably at his highest of score,

1037
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: he's one forty ish, which I know around the globe

1038
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:18,560
Speaker 1: that might not sound like a big deer, but in

1039
00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 1: our area and on my farm, he was a giant.

1040
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 1: And Thanksgiving rolled around, and my oldest son, Ryan, he's

1041
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,600
Speaker 1: in physical therapy school, has been tied up with school

1042
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:33,600
Speaker 1: for years and has not had a lot of opportunity

1043
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:35,960
Speaker 1: to hunt. When he did get to hunt, it was

1044
00:54:36,040 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 1: like the conditions were always rotten. He just never had

1045
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: that perfect opportunity. So, I mean he's he's immersed in school,

1046
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:48,040
Speaker 1: takes a very serious and so you know, he wasn't

1047
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:50,759
Speaker 1: like me and my crew that you know, we deer

1048
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:52,439
Speaker 1: hunted and then went to you know, and then worried

1049
00:54:52,440 --> 00:54:55,560
Speaker 1: about school. It's probably it took us all salon to graduate.

1050
00:54:55,880 --> 00:54:58,040
Speaker 1: So anyway, he got to come home with Thanksgiving. The

1051
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:01,400
Speaker 1: next morning, we decided he was going to go across

1052
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:04,120
Speaker 1: the road and hunt a spot. Now, I was gonna

1053
00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:06,799
Speaker 1: go hunt out of the ground blind and sit there

1054
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,640
Speaker 1: and watch, you know, one hundred acres of open field

1055
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 1: right there. I told him when we were on the

1056
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:14,800
Speaker 1: way there, I said, I am not killing nothing today.

1057
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:19,160
Speaker 1: I am literally just watching and if something, if a

1058
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:22,319
Speaker 1: buck comes out, I will call you or text you

1059
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:25,240
Speaker 1: and you can come on over here. But I said,

1060
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: it's this particular buck when we had nicknamed him. If

1061
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:32,359
Speaker 1: he comes out, I will shoot him because he is

1062
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:34,640
Speaker 1: he's the one that we've been after for so long.

1063
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:36,480
Speaker 1: I will shoot that deer. It's what I told you.

1064
00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:41,640
Speaker 1: So anyway, he goes his way, I go my way.

1065
00:55:42,080 --> 00:55:44,320
Speaker 1: Sitting there in my blind and it's dark and a

1066
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:48,920
Speaker 1: first light. There's a couple of doors feeding and hadn't

1067
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: been just a few minutes. Here come another couple of

1068
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 1: deer and come out of the woods and start coming

1069
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:56,240
Speaker 1: over there towards it. Well, then all of a sudden,

1070
00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:58,960
Speaker 1: here he comes. He comes out of the woods right

1071
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:02,400
Speaker 1: behind them doors. In a moment he stepped out, I

1072
00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:06,960
Speaker 1: saw it was him, and I texted Ryan and I said,

1073
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:10,400
Speaker 1: we had named this deer mowab mother of all bucks,

1074
00:56:10,680 --> 00:56:13,560
Speaker 1: is what we So anyway, that's what we had nicknamed him.

1075
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:15,920
Speaker 1: Which you know, I'm not one of them that I

1076
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:17,959
Speaker 1: don't nickname every deer, I say, but for some reason

1077
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:20,719
Speaker 1: or another that one he deserved a nickname. The deer

1078
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:23,359
Speaker 1: comes out and he's marching right towards those other deer.

1079
00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: I test Ryan, and I just said, he's in the field.

1080
00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:29,719
Speaker 1: If you can get here, I'm just gonna sit here

1081
00:56:29,719 --> 00:56:33,960
Speaker 1: and wait. We gotta understand he is as the crow flies,

1082
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:36,200
Speaker 1: he's half a mile from him, but in order for

1083
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:40,239
Speaker 1: him to get to me, it's double that. So I said,

1084
00:56:40,239 --> 00:56:42,359
Speaker 1: if you can get here, I'm going to hold off.

1085
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 1: So anyway, he says, I'm on the way, and here

1086
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:49,160
Speaker 1: he come, and he he was giving me updates as

1087
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:53,799
Speaker 1: he was coming. Well, while he's given me updates, I

1088
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 1: can see back out towards where he's coming from, and

1089
00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 1: I mean he is getting it, trying to get there quick.

1090
00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:02,240
Speaker 1: But he's behind a hill from the deer. They can't see. Well.

1091
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:05,000
Speaker 1: I have a group thread with some friends of mine

1092
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:08,480
Speaker 1: and some childhood friends of mine, and we probably don't

1093
00:57:08,520 --> 00:57:10,960
Speaker 1: go a single day that we do not connect with,

1094
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:14,400
Speaker 1: you know, lifting each other up, talking about old times,

1095
00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:17,800
Speaker 1: you know, praying for each other. You know, we are tight.

1096
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 1: I just sent them a message and I said, boys,

1097
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:23,960
Speaker 1: I'm watching mowab and I'm waiting for Ryan to get here.

1098
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:26,680
Speaker 1: To shoot him if if the Lord wheels it. What

1099
00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:30,000
Speaker 1: was so cool about it is, they started responding, I'm

1100
00:57:30,040 --> 00:57:33,520
Speaker 1: watching the deer, he's over here. I'm watching Ryan through

1101
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:36,880
Speaker 1: the back window of the blind, and I'm texting some

1102
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 1: of my closest friends. So they're just like sitting in

1103
00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:43,200
Speaker 1: the blind with me and the deer. He'll run a

1104
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:45,160
Speaker 1: dough a circle or two and then he'll come back.

1105
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:48,360
Speaker 1: That's around. Ryan has to come down a fence row

1106
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:51,000
Speaker 1: and he has to ask to belly crawl for probably

1107
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:53,040
Speaker 1: about one hundred yards. And I knew he was gonna

1108
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:55,080
Speaker 1: have trouble getting the gate open. And I mean, because

1109
00:57:55,080 --> 00:57:57,080
Speaker 1: we're hunting on a cattle farm, you know, there's an old,

1110
00:57:57,080 --> 00:57:59,360
Speaker 1: squeaky gate to get to come through. So I crawl

1111
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 1: out of the blind and crawl over to the gate,

1112
00:58:02,320 --> 00:58:05,880
Speaker 1: open it for him, and then he crawls to me.

1113
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: We crawl in the blind together. And looking back on

1114
00:58:11,280 --> 00:58:14,400
Speaker 1: it now, I wasn't as prepared, didn't have a good

1115
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 1: shooting stick, didn't even have a really good chair in there.

1116
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,880
Speaker 1: Had a you know, three dollar chair from Dollar General

1117
00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:21,920
Speaker 1: in there, and I get him in the chair. The

1118
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:24,600
Speaker 1: deer is still there. He's been out there a while.

1119
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:27,200
Speaker 1: At this point he gets in the chair and I mean,

1120
00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:29,920
Speaker 1: he has just ran a mile. The biggest deer's every

1121
00:58:29,960 --> 00:58:31,919
Speaker 1: laid eyes on is standing in the field in front

1122
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 1: of him, and he is shook. I'm talking shook up,

1123
00:58:36,200 --> 00:58:39,600
Speaker 1: which I was too. I knew what was hopefully about

1124
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:41,880
Speaker 1: to happen. I had done all I could do for him.

1125
00:58:42,280 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 1: And so he gets he gets in the chair and

1126
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:48,160
Speaker 1: I have a very special gun in my family that

1127
00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:50,720
Speaker 1: I've told the boys that whichever one of them can

1128
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 1: get me my first granddaughter, we'll get. We'll get this gun.

1129
00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:57,040
Speaker 1: It's a there's nothing really special about it other than

1130
00:58:57,240 --> 00:58:59,440
Speaker 1: it killed a bunch of deer with it. It's a

1131
00:58:59,480 --> 00:59:01,880
Speaker 1: super shoe and gun and it and it'll shoot a

1132
00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 1: long ways. And Ryan's gun that he was carrying, he

1133
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:07,560
Speaker 1: was hunting in some pretty low brush and stuff, so

1134
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:10,000
Speaker 1: he was carrying a specific gun fronting over there, so

1135
00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 1: I swapped guns with him. He was having trouble getting

1136
00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:15,880
Speaker 1: on the deer and it was not a close shot.

1137
00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:18,760
Speaker 1: His two hundred and twenty yards. He says, I think

1138
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:21,360
Speaker 1: he was. I think I'm on him, and I said,

1139
00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:24,560
Speaker 1: let's squeeze the trigger and he shoots, and he misses,

1140
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:31,240
Speaker 1: and the deer just kind of jumped and then just

1141
00:59:31,240 --> 00:59:35,440
Speaker 1: started walking off. I mean he knew something that that.

1142
00:59:35,600 --> 00:59:38,480
Speaker 1: I mean, he obviously heard something and he knew something happened,

1143
00:59:38,520 --> 00:59:41,240
Speaker 1: but it didn't booger him too bad. And he walked

1144
00:59:41,240 --> 00:59:43,360
Speaker 1: into the clear cut. There was a whole bunch of

1145
00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:45,920
Speaker 1: other deer in the clearcut there. Of course, Ryan is

1146
00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:50,320
Speaker 1: his confidence is just shook. You know, he's upset that

1147
00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:54,080
Speaker 1: he's missed the deer. I'm upset because there's four years

1148
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 1: of trying to kill this deer walking away anyway. The

1149
00:59:59,520 --> 01:00:02,880
Speaker 1: deer is not He's not like taking off. He's going

1150
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:05,800
Speaker 1: upside of the hill, and I'm like, just just regroup,

1151
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:06,800
Speaker 1: you're gonna get another.

1152
01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:07,240
Speaker 3: Shot at him.

1153
01:00:07,880 --> 01:00:10,680
Speaker 1: The deer walks upside of the hill, and my view

1154
01:00:10,760 --> 01:00:13,960
Speaker 1: of him, he's perfectly broadside. And Ryan is like, I

1155
01:00:14,000 --> 01:00:16,760
Speaker 1: cannot get on that deer. He's like, I am too,

1156
01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:19,160
Speaker 1: I am too shook up. I cannot get on the deer.

1157
01:00:19,800 --> 01:00:21,800
Speaker 1: When I tell you who I'm about to reference, you'll

1158
01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:25,840
Speaker 1: you'll know him well. But I was about to wayne

1159
01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:28,920
Speaker 1: paid him. I was about to take the gun away

1160
01:00:28,920 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 1: from him, you know.

1161
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:31,640
Speaker 3: And uh Andy.

1162
01:00:31,320 --> 01:00:34,400
Speaker 1: Brown tells the story of you know, I'm gonna wayne, Paige, you,

1163
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:38,280
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that gun away from you. So he's like, here,

1164
01:00:38,720 --> 01:00:40,440
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't do it. So he just hands

1165
01:00:40,440 --> 01:00:43,440
Speaker 1: me the gun. I sit down in that three dollar checker,

1166
01:00:43,960 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: and of course, you know, I've got years of experience

1167
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 1: of shooting deer and all this other stuff, and he

1168
01:00:48,960 --> 01:00:52,280
Speaker 1: does not. So I was pretty quick to improvise how

1169
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:54,440
Speaker 1: to get steady on the deer. And I mean I

1170
01:00:54,440 --> 01:00:56,760
Speaker 1: got rock solid on him. He's I mean I even

1171
01:00:56,800 --> 01:00:58,640
Speaker 1: had time to range him. He's about two hundred and

1172
01:00:58,680 --> 01:01:03,680
Speaker 1: seventy five yards at this point. And I had this

1173
01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:09,840
Speaker 1: just overwhelming feeling. And I know it was because of

1174
01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 1: some of the texts that I had gotten from my

1175
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:15,040
Speaker 1: friends about that's awesome. You know that I was not

1176
01:01:15,080 --> 01:01:17,360
Speaker 1: shooting the deer that I was waiting for. You know that, man,

1177
01:01:17,400 --> 01:01:19,480
Speaker 1: this is awesome. I hope it comes, I hope it happens,

1178
01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:20,640
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff. And I had this is

1179
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:24,000
Speaker 1: overwhelming feeling that deer does not mean near as much

1180
01:01:24,040 --> 01:01:27,000
Speaker 1: to me. That's what it remained to him if he

1181
01:01:27,800 --> 01:01:31,720
Speaker 1: gets to kill this thing. And I just said, I'm

1182
01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:34,920
Speaker 1: not shooting him. Get back to seat and I said,

1183
01:01:35,240 --> 01:01:38,360
Speaker 1: look at exactly how I'm set up right here. Now,

1184
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:40,880
Speaker 1: you got to understand this is all of this is

1185
01:01:40,920 --> 01:01:42,120
Speaker 1: going on live.

1186
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:43,160
Speaker 8: You know.

1187
01:01:43,720 --> 01:01:46,880
Speaker 1: So this encounter has been going on for probably at

1188
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:49,760
Speaker 1: this point thirty minutes from the time I will see

1189
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:52,440
Speaker 1: him come out of the field to where we're at

1190
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:55,120
Speaker 1: right now. He gets in the chair and he gets

1191
01:01:55,160 --> 01:01:57,680
Speaker 1: pretty solid on him, and about that time, a doe

1192
01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:01,240
Speaker 1: just turns in front of Moab and heads right back

1193
01:02:01,280 --> 01:02:04,360
Speaker 1: for the field that we had just shot at him in,

1194
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: and that buck totally changed his demeanor. He hooked a

1195
01:02:09,720 --> 01:02:13,040
Speaker 1: bush and then here he comes, and he follows that

1196
01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:17,560
Speaker 1: dough right back out into the field. Caution went away.

1197
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:20,040
Speaker 1: He comes right back into the field. He walked right

1198
01:02:20,080 --> 01:02:22,600
Speaker 1: back out there to where he was at standing in

1199
01:02:22,680 --> 01:02:25,680
Speaker 1: basically the exact same position he was in. And by

1200
01:02:25,680 --> 01:02:29,680
Speaker 1: that time Ryan had gotten it together and he steadied

1201
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:31,800
Speaker 1: up on him and he said, I'm on him. I said,

1202
01:02:31,880 --> 01:02:34,000
Speaker 1: let him have it, and he shot and down he went,

1203
01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:41,040
Speaker 1: and Clay, we tore that blind down trying to get

1204
01:02:41,080 --> 01:02:44,680
Speaker 1: out of it. We got out of it, and we

1205
01:02:45,160 --> 01:02:48,800
Speaker 1: started over there towards him and walking up to that deer.

1206
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 1: Seeing the look on my son's face and emotion for

1207
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:56,360
Speaker 1: both of us, just the caliber of the deer and

1208
01:02:56,400 --> 01:02:59,840
Speaker 1: the fact that we killed this deer on a piece

1209
01:02:59,880 --> 01:03:01,880
Speaker 1: of ground that has been in my family for one

1210
01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:06,960
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six years. I was overcome with emotion

1211
01:03:07,600 --> 01:03:12,800
Speaker 1: of I've had this overly blessed life, had the greatest family,

1212
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:17,240
Speaker 1: the greatest upbringing. You know, was blessed to have this

1213
01:03:17,680 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 1: wonderful piece of dirt, to be a steward over to

1214
01:03:20,480 --> 01:03:24,640
Speaker 1: experience a once in a lifetime or deal with my son,

1215
01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:30,600
Speaker 1: And it was just unexplainable for I know you have

1216
01:03:30,680 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 1: felt it. I know you have, and I know a

1217
01:03:33,880 --> 01:03:37,080
Speaker 1: lot of my closest friends have felt the exact same

1218
01:03:37,160 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: thing that I did that day, But it would be

1219
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:43,800
Speaker 1: really hard to explain to somebody that has not been

1220
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:47,760
Speaker 1: in that situation. You couldn't have knocked me off the

1221
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:52,160
Speaker 1: top of that mountain that day. So I've had a

1222
01:03:52,200 --> 01:03:55,960
Speaker 1: lot of time to reflect on that and just realize

1223
01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:59,760
Speaker 1: that it's it's the smallest of details in hunting that

1224
01:03:59,840 --> 01:04:03,520
Speaker 1: may make them the most important memories that you'll have

1225
01:04:04,520 --> 01:04:08,280
Speaker 1: as far as in the hunting circle of memories, because

1226
01:04:08,400 --> 01:04:13,200
Speaker 1: it's normally not the hunts that went perfect, you know,

1227
01:04:13,240 --> 01:04:15,120
Speaker 1: the ones that were easier, not the ones that stick

1228
01:04:15,160 --> 01:04:18,560
Speaker 1: out of my mind. It's the ones that either I

1229
01:04:18,600 --> 01:04:23,680
Speaker 1: worked super hard at or just the unexpected happened, or

1230
01:04:23,720 --> 01:04:28,440
Speaker 1: some crazy, you know, something out of the box happened.

1231
01:04:29,400 --> 01:04:33,360
Speaker 1: And I think that's why I love deer hunting specifically,

1232
01:04:33,480 --> 01:04:35,600
Speaker 1: because the white tailed deer is one of the most

1233
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:39,680
Speaker 1: elusive creatures God ever created. The protein that we get

1234
01:04:39,720 --> 01:04:42,960
Speaker 1: from them, experiences, memories made with our loved ones and

1235
01:04:42,960 --> 01:04:46,000
Speaker 1: our friends. Also to be able to sit here like

1236
01:04:46,080 --> 01:04:51,000
Speaker 1: this with you and connect with these crazy stories that

1237
01:04:51,080 --> 01:04:55,000
Speaker 1: happened to us that otherwise, you know, we could be friends,

1238
01:04:55,400 --> 01:04:57,600
Speaker 1: but we would not be able to connect with people

1239
01:04:57,920 --> 01:05:01,680
Speaker 1: and have a bond. And so that's why I love hunting.

1240
01:05:06,760 --> 01:05:09,600
Speaker 2: As I sat in front of Luke in person as

1241
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:13,680
Speaker 2: he told this story, when Ryan handed him back the gun,

1242
01:05:14,160 --> 01:05:17,920
Speaker 2: I was a little disappointed, but at the same time,

1243
01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:21,400
Speaker 2: I was screaming in my head for Luke to grab

1244
01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:25,360
Speaker 2: the gun. And then Luke has Moab in his sights.

1245
01:05:25,600 --> 01:05:28,000
Speaker 2: It's deer that they've had so much history with.

1246
01:05:28,640 --> 01:05:29,280
Speaker 3: And I was.

1247
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:34,120
Speaker 2: Really surprised again when Luke handed the gun back to Ryan,

1248
01:05:34,600 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 2: and I was even more amazed when this ancient buck

1249
01:05:37,840 --> 01:05:40,960
Speaker 2: had survived all these years with all this hunting pressure,

1250
01:05:41,440 --> 01:05:47,760
Speaker 2: immediately changed directions, changed his demeanor, and came right back. Now,

1251
01:05:47,880 --> 01:05:51,480
Speaker 2: that is a good story, Luke, and congrats to Rioting.

1252
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:06,640
Speaker 2: If you have enjoyed these stories, this is just the

1253
01:06:06,640 --> 01:06:11,440
Speaker 2: beginning of an incredible series. I'll close with these words.

1254
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:16,360
Speaker 2: In the book The Bear by William Faulkner, he describes

1255
01:06:16,400 --> 01:06:21,320
Speaker 2: a family's annual bear hunt as a yearly pageant of

1256
01:06:21,400 --> 01:06:29,440
Speaker 2: the old bear's furious immortality. That's an interesting phrase, furious immortality,

1257
01:06:30,280 --> 01:06:33,840
Speaker 2: meaning this beast had a drive to survive.

1258
01:06:34,160 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 3: That was incredible.

1259
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:38,840
Speaker 2: I think that what we love about white tails is

1260
01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:43,080
Speaker 2: their furious immortality. They're hard to kill, and that's what

1261
01:06:43,200 --> 01:06:46,960
Speaker 2: makes the meat so valuable, the hunt so memorable, the

1262
01:06:47,080 --> 01:06:50,240
Speaker 2: annual rituals so strong and long lasting.

1263
01:06:50,480 --> 01:06:51,000
Speaker 3: I love it.

1264
01:06:51,760 --> 01:06:56,040
Speaker 2: I encourage you this year to keep your whitetail traditions alive,

1265
01:06:56,720 --> 01:06:59,280
Speaker 2: and if you don't have any, make some new ones.

1266
01:07:02,200 --> 01:07:05,080
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to Bear Grease. Be

1267
01:07:05,160 --> 01:07:09,880
Speaker 2: sure to check out Meat Eater and First Light's Whitetail Week. Myself,

1268
01:07:09,920 --> 01:07:14,120
Speaker 2: along with Mark Kenyon, Tony Peterson, Giannis Poottellus, Casey and

1269
01:07:14,200 --> 01:07:16,920
Speaker 2: Tyler from the Element and the whole Meet Eater crew.

1270
01:07:17,240 --> 01:07:19,840
Speaker 2: We'll be sharing white tail tips and tactics on our

1271
01:07:19,880 --> 01:07:24,400
Speaker 2: social media all week. I cannot wait to talk about

1272
01:07:24,440 --> 01:07:26,920
Speaker 2: these stories on the Render next.

1273
01:07:26,640 --> 01:07:29,680
Speaker 3: Week with the crew. Have a great week.